


Knuckles' Inferno

by SkyWrites



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Dark Comedy, Gen, Mental Breakdown, Parody, Sarcasm, Sonic Boom - Freeform, also monkeys, out of character mostly, very deep symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 17:51:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7943713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyWrites/pseuds/SkyWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Knuckles visits SEGA Headquarters in an attempt to get a role in Sonic Boom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knuckles' Inferno

**Author's Note:**

> This garbage was brought to you by Sky.
> 
> Sky says!: welcome to my hell

Ear-piercing screeches echoed through the halls. Monkeys scrambled across the furniture as if their lives were at stake – and they probably were. They hopped eagerly from desk to desk, squealing and screaming as they did so, knocking over cups, staplers, and other office supplies. The few dominant monkeys hooted and hollered even above the rest of the noise, a white powder smeared across their faces. They slammed their palms down on the keyboards with a boundless rage that could only be compared to celestial objects. Their fists banged on the computer screen, screaming bloody murder, as if their brains were on fire.

Feces flew across the room occasionally, sparking a fight between the alphas. The monkeys would quickly drop what they were doing and an almost eerie silence would fall over them for but a moment. The next, two of the biggest and burliest of monkeys would appear in the center, their ties covered in dirt and blood. The fighting began again.

“SEGA Headquarters,” Knuckles sighed. He always hoped he wouldn’t have to come back here. He looked down at his own tie and noticed his hands trembling. The tie was a bright green and had bright bold yellow letters across it, jumbled together. It read BALDY MCNOSEHAIR. It was a hideous tie, but the echidna knew it was necessary to get through this hell hole.

A stray monkey hopped in front of the echidna and screeched a noise that caused blood to drip out of Knuckles’ ears. It pointed at him with a loathing that could only be described as murderous intent. Its dopey eyes scanned over Knuckles quickly and lit up when it saw the tie. The monkey burst into another scream, but this time it was laughter. An insane laughter. It fell to its knees, pounding its palms on the carpet, fully erect. 

Knuckles used this opportunity to quickly walk by the monster. By the time the echidna made it down the hallway, the monkey from before was already gone. Its laughter vanished and replaced by furious anger. He knew he shouldn’t, he knew it would haunt him, but Knuckles turned his head back to see what had happened. In its hands was another monkey, dead and bloodied. Beaten to a pulp. Stab wounds covered it from head to toe and the monkey drank from its blood hungrily, but never satisfied.

Knuckles’ heart was pounding in his chest. It had always been bad here, but never THIS bad. He told himself this nearly every time he came here. He was almost always right.

A flash of pink in the distant war. Knuckles felt a trickle of his fear evaporate. “Amy!” he called out as loud as he could, but his voice was completely drowned out by the feral animals’ howling. It was Amy! Surely she could help him through this difficult time. She walked towards him down the hallway at a brisk pace. She hadn’t noticed him yet for some reason or another.  

When Amy grew closer, Knuckles tried waving his arms and forcing a friendly smile to hide his fear and shame. She ignored him and walked by. Her hair disheveled, her dress dirty, most likely from spending too long in this hell. She walked right past Knuckles, without even so much as eye contact. Knuckles couldn’t hear anything over the chaos, but for a brief moment he heard a sob break out of her delicate mouth. “Girl Power,” she whimpered to herself, small crystals forming around her eyes.

Knuckles no longer kept up his fake smile, he knew it didn’t matter. Amy was already gone. In more ways than one.

Hours passed. Shadows danced along the cobblestone walls as the mounted torches flicked. A lone water cooler burbled lightly to itself, the last remnant of the office left behind, the last remnant of civilization itself. Knuckles learned to find his way through the labyrinth by following the blood and corpses. Whenever a cross road presented itself, he knew to follow the darkest path. The walls were now splattered with crimson, brown, and gold. Blood, feces, and urine. 

This was his punishment. He deserved this, Knuckles muttered to himself. He could have done better. He had grown too lazy, too soft over the years. He could have stopped all this from happening, or at least left long before it had gotten so bad. But he didn’t. Now he was stuck here. Covered in grime, covered in filth. He was a shell of his former self. All that mattered now was survival. Was he any better than the beasts?

A sickening screech burrowed itself into Knuckles’ ears, into his skull. His heart pounded violently, bashing his chest like a baseball bat. It came from behind. All of his instincts screamed, “Run. Don’t look back. Don’t look back.” But some strange force kept him still. Kept him curious even. It was as if his soul had left him and watched this scene unfold. He was no longer in control as he turned his head to face the creature.

The torches blew out. Darkness enveloped the thing. Armed it. This one wasn’t an ape of any kind. Strings seemed to attach themselves to Knuckles as he saw himself point to the tie again with a sheepish smile. He was a puppet watching his own death.

The monster screamed with rage at the sight of the tie, its eyes permanently accustomed to the dark. It belonged here – the darkness. The bright colors of the echidna and its tie sent daggers of pain into it. _They_ did not belong here.

It stood on two legs. Drool oozed out of its mouth, nostrils flaring a hot mist into the hallway. The abomination held something in its claw. No. Knuckles was also adjusting to the dark. The abomination did not hold it. It was fused into its palm, skin and veins wrapping around the wooden boomerang. It was a cruel twist of fate, as the creature could not even throw it.

It stepped forward. Knuckles’ soul was forcibly sucked back into his body. Without a second thought, he dashed away from the creature, his legs carrying him faster than he ever thought they could. The monster howled in fury and gave chase, screeching as it went. Knuckles felt blood trickle down his ears, knowing for at least a moment, he had gone deaf. But, somehow, the wild screams still struck his very being.

Years had passed, or at least that’s what he felt. The echidna’s lungs nearly burst, gasping desperately for the stale dungeon air as this horrifying being shambled after. The darkness of the halls nearly smothered him. Many times he found himself lost in this maze, running face first into a dead end. He didn’t know how, but each time he had managed to narrowly escape the creature, feeling its hot breath against his neck, smelling the stink of its body parts. Was it alive or dead? He didn’t know. Was the creature even real or was he stuck in a waking nightmare?

None of that would matter soon enough.

A light at the end of a tunnel. A dull yellow square. Salvation? Maybe. A worse fate? More than likely. Knuckles was willing to take the risk at this point, he had gotten too far to give up now. His legs burned, his muscles exploded, and his chest heaved, but he still ran towards that faint glimmer.

Its features became revealed more and more. A lone office door in this strange cobblestone hallway. Bloody handprints smeared themselves on the glass, but were they on the inside or outside? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

Knuckles reached the light. He stood before the door now, trembling and cursing. The monster, what was it doing? He looked back, saw the brown beast was convulsing. Trembling? It hissed at the sight, it’s bloodshot eyes could reflect only fear. A stream of yellow ran down its leg, before it dashed back into the darkness from whence it came.

That couldn’t be a good sign.

Looking up at the imposing door, the yellow light streaming through its cracks and crevices as if desperate to escape the room, Knuckles read the words in bright bold red: “The Boss” aloud. Was that blood? No, the writing itself looked to be professional, it couldn’t be blood, right? This was just some fevered dream, right?

Enough questions. Knuckles placed his palm over the golden door knob and pushed, an eerie creak echoing through the hallways behind him.

His eyes had to adjust to the sudden light. The door shut behind him, but he couldn’t be sure by who or what. The ticking of a clock found its way to his ears, suddenly making the silence all the clearer. Below his bloodied and battered lego shoes was a perfectly maintained carpet of the finest greens. It reminded him of his precious emerald. Long forgotten by all but him, a scar in his mind. The memories only brought pain.

The walls were covered in a strangely plain striped wallpaper. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but they felt large, too tall, too _strange_ to be real. It wasn’t right. Knuckles felt an out of place feeling in the pit of his stomach.

A desk stood before him; dark, looming, oppressive. It was a cleaned and polished wood however, strange to see such a well maintained piece of furniture in this place. Behind it was a figure, shadowed by the yellow glow, seated in a chair facing away from Knuckles.

This was who he had come to see. This was what his goal was, this was where he _needed_ to be. But his voice was lost, his mind was gone. What courage he had at the start of this journey was but a fleeting memory, something impossible.

The figure stirred. Knuckles couldn’t breathe. His muscles had atrophied. He must have died, he thought.

It faced him.

“Just what do you want?” bellowed a gruff voice. It was a gorilla in a business suit smoking a banana cigar.

Knuckles’ first instinct was to chuckle, but he couldn’t. After all he had been through after all, was he even Knuckles anymore? Who was he?

“I… uh… I…” the words escaped his lips like a spittle of vomit.

“Speak up, you pansy,” the gorilla groaned, bashing a curled fist onto his desk.

“Yes, sir,” Knuckles whimpered. “My name is Knuckles the Echidna and I-“

“Spit it out, already!” the boss monkey had roared, even though Knuckles was getting to that.

“Please, don’t forget to put me in the next game!” Knuckles spat out in a desperate cry. “I have a family to feed, I need a bigger role!”

The boss of SEGA Headquarters harrumphed and puffed on his banana cigar for a few moments. His nostrils flared as a brief expression of unimaginable rage and ungodly hatred covered his face. This power was unlike Knuckles had ever seen before. It was no wonder this being had become the boss.

“So, you wanna be in Sonic Boom, huh?” His fiery eyes stabbed into Knuckles’ very essence. “Just who are you, anyway? Why should I let some nobody like you into my work?”

He had already said his name, but he didn’t dare say that to the creature before him. “My name is Knuckles the Echidna,” he sputtered, terrified. “I’ve been a part of this franchise since nearly the beginning! Many fans love my character and would love to see me come back!”

“Well, I’ve never heard of ya,” the gorilla retorted, lighting up another banana cigar. Smoke curled out of its peeled end like a demon’s breath. “Been in those old games, eh? Not important, don’t need ‘em to make money.”

Some might call what he did next courageous. Knuckles knew it as desperation. “I disagree!” the echidna yelled. “H-having me play a bigger role in the next game is sure to get more potential customers!”

“ ** _WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!_** ”

The echidna was knocked down to the ground where he belonged, the force of that voice overwhelming his mind. The world grew dark. Flames surrounded him on all sides. Satan himself would tremble beneath these words.

Knuckles had given up. _Just let me die. No more of this._

The boss monkey chuckled. An evil sound. A grin spread across his lips. “I like your style, kid.”

_Please, just let me die. This wasn’t worth it._

“Maybe you’re right, Kronkles,” the hellspawn said in a distorted voice, amused. “A red guy like you might rake in some extra bucks.” Knuckles wasn’t looking anymore, he couldn’t look, but he felt the beast’s smile form into a displeased frown. “Thought you were supposed to be the strong one though?”

Knuckles nodded, merely a fleshy puppet to the demon at this point.

“You don’t look so strong.” Another toothy grin splayed across his mouth. “How’s anyone supposed to know you’re the strong one?”

 _My actions of course. My knuckles. I don’t need to look strong if I can punch a boulder._ Knuckles couldn’t speak, yet somehow, this otherworldly hate spawn had invaded his mind.

“Bah,” the horror groaned, waving its large hand at Knuckles and spraying him with banana ashes. “People are too stupid to get that. You need to have a big buff body. Here.” He tossed a few dirty needles and syringes to Knuckles. “Use these.”

Steroids? To make him overly big? But that was such a stereotype! It wasn’t even funny!

“Speakin’ of funny,” the gorilla laughed darkly. “You know what’s funny? A big buff stupid guy. It’s the only way to be a strong character in today’s age after all. You’re so stupid, you don’t even know left from right!”

Knuckles was always a little slow, always a little gullible, but he wasn’t _stupid_.

“ ** _YOU. ARE. STUPID_**.”

The howling voice encompassed him, its volume raised to terrifying levels. Shadows and sulphur engulfed the office, poisoning Knuckles’ lungs.

The demon was right. Knuckles was always stupid. Which way was left and right? Haha, he had to think about it! It was funny! Baldy McNosehair! Literary genius! It _definitely_ deserved to be referenced more than three times throughout three different games. More than that even!

“Yes. Good.” The voice was disgustingly sweet. “Looks like we’ll be using you after all.”

Oh thank the lord, his kids would be eating tonight! Haha, his dumb stupid kids! Like him! Did he even have kids? He couldn’t remember, he was so stupid!

“Before you go,” it said. “I’ll be needing one last thing from you.”

The gorilla stood tall. Its dark shadow filled the walls. A banana appeared near the silhouette’s pants.

It wasn’t a banana, though…

**Author's Note:**

> i don't like sonic boom


End file.
